Many years past, the largest conference in the world for travel agents was held annually in London. All the countries in the world who had any sort of tourist outreach program sent PR folks to entice travel agents to send them tourists. Countries were in one exhibit hall. Because the USA was such a popular destination, it was in an entirely different exhibit hall with booths from most states.
Texas always registered as and was accepted as a country; our booth was in the first hall. That went on for decades until the format and location of the event changed.